News tagged with solar array

NREL simulates shade conditions in repeatable test for solar arrays

The DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released a new repeatable test protocol that simulates real shade conditions and can predict with much greater precision the effects of shade on a solar array.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created May 15, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Galileo to image objects in geosynchronous orbit faster

Military satellites are critical sources of communications and data for today's operations environments. Through DARPA's Phoenix program, usable antennas or solar arrays from retired satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO ...

Technology / Telecom

created Jan 17, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

LIPA, BP Solar and Brookhaven National Lab flip the switch at the Long Island solar farm

Officials from the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), BP Solar International, Inc. (BP Solar), Brookhaven National Laboratory and a host of government officials and environmental leaders today celebrated ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Nov 21, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1

New materials turn heat into electricity

Most of today's power plants--from some of the largest solar arrays to nuclear energy facilities--rely on the boiling and condensing of water to produce energy.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Nov 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (19) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Red, white and solar: 160,000 military homes to get rooftop arrays

The last time I checked in with SolarCity was back in June when underwater hockey enthusiast Lyndon Rive's San Mateo, Calif.-based photovoltaic powerhouse had just received a whopping $280 million investment from that ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Sep 12, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Daunting space task -- send astronauts to asteroid

With the space shuttle now history, NASA's next great mission is so audacious, the agency's best minds are wrestling with how to pull it off: Send astronauts to an asteroid in less than 15 years.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 23, 2011 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (13) | comments 77

While you're up, print me a solar cell (w/ video)

The sheet of paper looks like any other document that might have just come spitting out of an office printer, with an array of colored rectangles printed over much of its surface. But then a researcher picks ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jul 11, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Juno solar panels complete testing

The three massive solar panels that will provide power for NASA's Juno spacecraft during its mission to Jupiter have seen their last photons of light until they are deployed in space after launch. The last ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Endeavour astronauts wrap up second space walk

Two astronauts completed a second of four scheduled space walks of the Endeavour shuttle's final mission to the International Space Station on Sunday, the US space agency said.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 23, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Turning plants into power houses

(PhysOrg.com) -- "I have a slide that has a photo of a cornfield and a big photovoltaic array," says Robert Blankenship, a scientist who studies photosynthesis at Washington University in St. Louis. "When ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

High-efficiency solar power that floats in water

Sometimes you encounter an idea so seemingly brilliant you wonder why you didn't think of it yourself. OK, here goes: Utility-grade "concentrating" solar power ... in water. You're not applauding - what's going on?

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Apr 25, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (6) | comments 7

UQ solar array reaches milestone

The University of Queensland's $7.75 million solar power system at St Lucia in Brisbane has reached a milestone, with installation completed on one of the project's most visible components.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Apr 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 4

Juno marches on

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Juno spacecraft has completed its thermal vacuum chamber testing. The two-week-long test, which concluded on March 13, 2011, is the longest the spacecraft will undergo prior to launch.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Alternatives have begun in bid to hear from Spirit

(PhysOrg.com) -- Hopes for reviving NASA's Spirit Mars rover dimmed further with passage last week of the point at which the rover's locale received its maximum sunshine for the Martian year.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 21, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Image: Jupiter spacecraft nearing completion

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's fully assembled Juno spacecraft is currently undergoing testing at Lockheed Martin Space Systems near Denver.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 08, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Photovoltaic array

A photovoltaic array is a linked collection of photovoltaic modules, which are in turn made of multiple interconnected solar cells. The cells convert solar energy into direct current electricity via the photovoltaic effect. The power that one module can produce is seldom enough to meet requirements of a home or a business, so the modules are linked together to form an array. Most PV arrays use an inverter to convert the DC power produced by the modules into alternating current that can plug into the existing infrastructure to power lights, motors, and other loads. The modules in a PV array are usually first connected in series to obtain the desired voltage; the individual strings are then connected in parallel to allow the system to produce more current. Solar arrays are typically measured by the peak electrical power they produce, in watts, kilowatts, or even megawatts.

For more information about Photovoltaic array, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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